196 a short history of the united states
Jungle to expose the fi lthy conditions in meatpacking houses and neu-
tralize opposition to its passage. The law required sanitary conditions
and federal inspection of meatpacking facilities in any operation in-
volved in interstate commerce.
To a very large extent the President’s efforts reflected a larger Pro-
gressive movement that had developed within the country which de-
manded an end to the abuses of greedy corporations and machine
politics. Several states had already initiated such reforms by requiring
more accountability from business, and by returning government to the
electorate. Wisconsin, for example, enacted railroad legislation and an
income tax during the governorship of Robert M. La Follette. Other
states joined the push toward progressivism, by adopting the direct
primary and the initiative and referendum to allow voters a greater
voice in deciding legislation. To a large extent the movement was ad-
vanced by a number of writers, such as Sinclair, Ida Tarbell, Henry
Demarest Lloyd, Lincoln Stephens, and David Graham Phillips, who
exposed corruption and greed in business and in both state and na-
tional politics. Magazines, including Cosmopolitan, McClure’s, and the
American, which had national circulation, published their reports, and
these stories became more and more sensational as they delved deeper
into the activities of such monopolies as the Standard Oil Company,
the beef trust, and the Chicago stockyards, as well as corruption in city
governments and the United States Senate. Roo sevelt called them
“muckrakers,” comparing them to the man with the muckrake in John
Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, who never sees what is around him because
he is forever looking down at the filth he is raking.
The Progressive movement was an important development in the
evolution of American democracy. It urged legislation that would allow
the electorate to have a voice in initiating legislature that would benefi t
them; it urged legislation that would permit the public to approve or
disapprove measures passed by state legislatures; and it urged legisla-
tion that would permit voters to recall elected officials who, for one
reason or another, did not serve the public well-being. The electorate
did not always take advantage of the proposed reforms, however. In-
deed, compared with citizens of other democracies around the world,
Americans have a poor record of exercising their voting rights. The
percentage of qualified men and women who regularly go to the polls